Brothers

DIRECTED BY: Jim Sheridan

STARRING: Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard

CERT: 15A

AFTER the misguided and disappointing 50 Cent vehicle, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, director Jim Sheridan is back on fine form and doing what he’s always done best – wringing great performances from talented actors, most often in the setting of a struggling family – a theme that has run through his work since his debut, My Left Foot in 1989 and up until the recent In America.
The topical setting for Brothers is an American military family – headed up by angry, hard-drinking Marine veteran Hank Cahill (Shepard). Hank takes obvious pride in his oldest son Sam (Maguire), who’s followed in dad’s footsteps and is about to be deployed to fight in Afghanistan. But he has little but undisguised contempt for Sam’s younger brother and bona fide family black sheep. Tommy (Gyllenhaal), just out of prison after a spell for armed robbery.
When word comes home that Sam is missing in action and presumed dead, Tommy takes it upon himself to do what he can to help his brother’s grieving wife Grace (Portman) and her young daughters Maggie (Taylor Geare) and Isabelle (Bailee Madison). Initially, Grace is having none of it but gradually she allows him closer and the outcast finally establishes a grown-up role for himself in the family.
And then – well, if you’ve seen the trailer, it’s hardly a studio sceret that Sam turns out to be very much alive, though not very well. Captured by the Taliban after his helicopter went down, he has seen, endured and done things that have changed him utterly.
He returns home to a loving family welcome, but is distant from his wife, terrifying to his children and haunted by the war. He’s tormented, too, by what might or might not have happened between Grace and Tommy in his absence. And it doesn’t take long for things to get ugly.
There are times when Brothers can get a bit more melodramatic than it needs to be and so ultimately it is not as powerful a film as it might have been. Susanne Bier’s 2004
Danish feature Brodre, upon which this is based, was a less polished and more edgy affair.
But Brothers is a fine film all the same, intelligently scripted by David Benioff (Troy, The Kite Runner) and directed with a typically assured hand by Sheridan – who pushes Tobey Maguire to give perhaps his best performance yet and brings an equally impressive display out of Natalie Portman. She’s more radiant than ever and strikes a lovely balance between torn, fearful young wife and strong, mature mother at the heart of the family.
As he showed in 2002’s In America, Sheridan has a knack for getting the best out of child actors too. As Maggie and Isabelle, Taylor Geare and Bailee Madison are an absolute pleasure to watch and young Madison in particular is a revelation – giving her adult co-stars more than a run for their money in the acting stakes.
We’ll hear more of her, I’m sure.

The Boys Are Back

DIRECTED BY: Scott Hicks

STARRING: Clive Owen, Nicholas McAnulty, George McKay, Laura Fraser

CERT: 12A

IF Brothers has a tendency to get melodramatic, that film is the edgiest, darkest, grimmest drama ever made in comparison with The Boys Are Back – a film so deeply and blatantly coated in emotion, it should probably come with a health warning and a free packet of hankies.
Based loosely on a true story – as previosuly fictionalised in the novel by Simon Carr – it tell is of British sports journalist Joe Warr (Owen), who ran away Down Under after getting romatically entanged with Australian athlete Katy (Fraser) – leaving behind his wife Flick (Natalie Little) and their teenage son Harry (McKay).
Joe and Katy got married, had a child of their own called Artie (McAnulty) and lived happily ever after. Or until Kay dies of cancer, leaving Dad to bring up their son alone. Soon, the once-nice house turns into a bit of a wreck and Joe is in no rush to fix it. Until his first son, Harry, comes to visit and Joe is forced to start coming to terms with his grief and maybe even start thinking about living again and learning how to be a father. And while he’s at it, decide what it is he’s feeling for the very attractive divorcee Laura (Emma Booth).
Director Scott Hicks (Shine, No Reservations) sets out his stall early on and never deviates from his plan – to serve up a tried and tested formula that will make you laugh, make you cry and send you home feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.
And whether or not such a thing is to your liking, Hicks does it very well, helped in no small way by the very much in-form Clive Owen and some nice performances by his young co-stars McKay and, even more so, McAnulty.
Another youngster to keep an eye on.